The Spiral Mountain
by sierra skybeat
Summary: Harry, Luna, Ron, Ginny and Hermione are on the train when five visitors - two welcome, three not - decide to drop by. Everything goes black and suddenly they're transported to a strange and wondrous place.


Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me, capice? Good.

_Ginny POV_

"I already miss this train," said my big brother wistfully, twirling a Licorice Wand in his hand. Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.

"Might I remind you that this is only _September_ of our sixth year? We've still got two years left - three more trips on the train after this one."

I giggled and Harry laughed loudly.Luna smiled. Ron looked kind of embarrassed.

I was going into my fifth year at Hogwarts - OWL year. I'm going to have to start saving my Knuts if I want to survive this year, though I'm pretty sure Fred and George will give me a family discount on their Skiving Snackboxes. Maybe even free ones - who knows?

Ron, Hermione, Harry, Luna and I were sitting in the six-seat compartment, enjoying ourselves. We'd been through a lot right before term ended last year, along with Neville, who was on vacation with his grandmother and would be until, like, November. Even though Luna and Neville hadn't known Sirius, they grieved for him after we explained what had happened (which had taken nearly a full weekend - Mum had let Luna and Neville stay at the Burrow along with Harry and Hermione). It was difficult to fathom, seeing as we were all so different, but we had attached ourselves to one another with a bond of friendship.

Listen to me. I'm talking like I'm on one of those silly little Muggle soap operas that Dad watches.

"Ron, that's revolting," said Hermione, snapping me back to reality. Ron had about four pairs of Chocolate Frog legs sticking out of his mouth. Harry laughed, but I must have looked like I wasn't sure whether to laugh or puke.

"Mwuh?" Ron sounded bewildered.

"You should see him when Mum makes birthday cake," I said to Hermione. Her eyes widened.

"I'd rather not."

Of course, that got everybody laughing again. Eventually, we calmed down, but as soon as Luna's last laugh died away, a Frog leaped out of Ron's hand and we all started scrambling around to try and catch it. I didn't know why - probably none of us knew why - but it was just a laughing day. One of those days where everything seems funny. Including trying to catch a chocolate amphibian in a very crowded train compartment.

"Surpri- whoa!"George, another of my brothers, poked his head into the compartment and the Frog jumped at his face, using up its only good jump..

"Deranged chocolate, coming through," joked Fred, pushing George into the compartment and ducking in after him. It sat on his head, croaking.

I stood up, my giggles subsiding, and let George have my seat, snatching the Frog off his head and taking a bite as I sat on his lap. Fred sat in the only vacant seat - next to Harry. The remaining seat was taken up by Crookshanks's cat carrier and Hegwig and Pigwidegon's cages.

"What are you guys doing here, don't you have a joke shop to run?" asked Harry, flipping Fred a packet of Fizzing Whizbees.

"Can't a guy get a vacation?" asked George, yanking the leg off my Chocolate Frog. "We took a bit of time off - and put a tricky little spell on the shop."

"Let me guess - if someone robs it they'll turn into a fruit bat," said Ron thickly, his mouth full of Pumpkin Pasty.

"No - if someone robs it, ten times the original cost appears in the cash register," said Fred. "The fruit bat thing it only if they go to rob the register."

And the words brought another gale of laughter. "Have we entered a loony bin or what, George?" asked Fred, shaking his head.

"Too right," agreed George. I slapped him on the arm.

"I think that we're all a little giddy because we've lived to see another school year," said Luna, turning her wide eyes to us. "What with the Department of Mysteries incident."

"Yea, we're pretty bummed that we missed that," said George wistfully. I was about to say something along the lines of, "You idiot, you think we enjoyed that?" but suddenly a dark hole grew from the ceiling and spread.

The door slid open and I heard Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini enter (probably to annoy us) and then everything went black and all I was aware of were Luna, Hermione, Ron, Malfoy and Parkinson screaming, George, Fred, Harry and Zabini swearing and George holding onto me tightly. And then I knew no more.

_Ron POV_

"Ron," said someone, shaking my shoulder. I didn't move. "_Ron!" _the person said again. A girl.

"Uuuuuunnnnng," I moaned, sitting up. I saw Hermione sitting in front of me.

"Thank God you're all right, you've been unconscious for an hour!" she exclaimed. She was sitting on he knees, her forelegs splayed, but launched herself forward and threw her arms around me.

"Ron," said Ginny in a tiny voice. She had tearstains on her cheeks.

"The Weasel's awake," drawled Malfoy, who was sitting a ways off with Pansy Parkinson next to him. Blaise Zabini was deep in conversation with Harry. Ginny was crying onto George's shoulder, and he had his arms wrapped around her. Hadn't there been two others..?

"Shut it Malfoy," I snapped, putting a hand to my head. "Hermione, what the bloody hell happened?"

Hermione bit her lip. "We really have no idea. We were on the train, and then the Slytherins came in and all the sudden, here we are."

It occurred to me who we were missing. "Where're Luna and Fred?"

"They went to find a cave or something so we could have somewhere to sleep," replied my fellow Gryffindor. "Harry wanted to go, but he didn't want to leave you behind."

"Knowing that Lovegood freak, I'd say we'd be better off right here!" screeched Parkinson. Her pug-like face looked worried.

"Don't call her a freak," snapped Hermione, her cheek still on my shoulder. "You'd be surprised how many good things happen when Luna's around."

And then I took in the scenery. We were on a rocky, grassy, bumpy road. It wasn't even a road, really, it was a path. From what I could see, it was wrapped around a mountain. I wasn't about to lean over the edge to see how high up we were, but Hermione must have read my mind.

"We're about a mile up in the air on this mountain," she told me. "None of us had our wands handy except for Zabini, Parkinson and Malfoy, and Parkinson's is broken. There's a stream a ways away - a channel in the mountain. We've had to jump over it, it's about three feet wide. We were all walking so we could find somewhere to stay. The twins took it in turns to carry you, we couldn't get you awake. So everyone got tired and Fred and Luna volunteered to keep walking along the path until they found a cave or something."

"About that path. Why can't we follow it down to the bottom?"

"Well, uh... it sort of... uh, melts into the mountain about seventy feet down. We're stuck." We're stuck. The words echoed around in my head, bouncing off the inside of my brain, seeming to multiply with every comma. We're stuck, we're stuck, we're stuck. "Ron?" Hermione looked at me worriedly.

"Mione, I... I don't feel all that great." I was dizzy, and I felt like I assumed was the way people feel when they're drunk.

"Parkinson was dizzy also, Ron, and Fred threw up. Something about being teleported in such a spectacular manner, I guess... what are you doing?"

I was pushing myself up onto my feet. I felt like someone had put me under the Jelly-Legs Jinx. "I'm standing up, Hermione, you think I'm going to just sit around?"

"Yes, I do!" she replied angrily, kind of scaring me. "Ronald Weasley, you fell five feet from the air and landed on a very jagged bit of rock. You've probably got a head injury. Not only that, you also didn't cope with the transportation very well. I don't think that Fred and George were excruciatingly gentle with you either, even though Harry and Ginny and I told them to be. You are staying right there until I've had a look at you, you got that?"

"Yes, _Mum_," I said sarcastically. Reluctantly I let her take off my shirt and took the order to roll over wordlessly. George carried Ginny over to us and set her down next to me, sitting on Hermione's right side. Parkinson and Malfoy stayed where they were, and harry and Zabini were still talking.

"Right, you've got some nasty bruises here... is your back numb? Can you feel any pain?"

"No to both questions, but - AAAAHHH! Hermione, what was that for?" She had pressed down on one of the bruises that, until now, I hadn't been able to feel.

"To see if you've got a back injury!" she replied. "I think that you're just bruised, it's kind of hard to tell - omigosh!"

She sounded like she was about to faint. "Hermione?"

"What's wrong, Hermione?" asked George, putting a hand on her shoulder. I couldn't see what she was doing.

"Holy shit," said George. Ginny wailed.

"Will you please tell me the problem?" I asked angrily. I turned my head to try and face them, but all I succeeded in doing was cracking my neck painfully. "Ow."

"Ron, I... I think your wrist's broken." Hermione sounded awed. "And you don't feel it?"

"I was going to say, my back's not numb but my whole left leg and my arm below the elbow is. Right arm. That where it's broken?"

"Yes..."

"So the Weasel's got a broken arm?" asked Malfoy from his spot on the grass. I clenched my teeth.

"Yes, I don't know how bad it is, I'm not a nurse..."

Malfoy stood up and strode over to us. Parkinson looked nervous, but she darted after Malfoy.

Oh, no. No way in hell was I going to let that bastard heal me. If it was up to me I wouldn't even let him come within a mile of me.

"Well, he'd certainly slow us down if we had to run," said Malfoy. "His leg's broken too. And I bet you and Potter and the other Weasleys wouldn't want to leave him behind."

"His leg's broken?" wailed Ginny. Malfoy made an affirmative grunt-y noise, his voice unnaturally soft.

"Yea, see there? His thigh is crooked in the middle, see it?" Everything was upside down, inside out, twisted and tied in complicated knots. (A/NWow, I need to pace myself!) Malfoy being nice to Ginny? Helpfully pointing out an injury on me? What was the bloody world coming to, anyway?

"Hey! Hermione, George, Ginny, Ron, Harry! Uh, Slytherins.... We found a place!" Fred was running down the spiraling path, stopping when he got to us. Luna was close behind. "What's his problem?"

"Broken wrist, bruised back, broken leg," said Hermione. "Can you and George take it in turns to carry him to wherever we're going? Gently this time, okay, guys?"

"Sorry," they said sheepishly.

Hermione walked over to where Harry and Zabini were still deep in conversation. I saw her lips move and Harry and Zabini get up. They came over to us.

"I guess we're ready, then," said Hermione. Fred scooped me into his arms and led the group with Luna, starting up the spiral path.

/Author's Notes:

My first fanfic, tell me what you think! Please review! Please, please, pleeeeease! Grovels Okay, that was pathetic. Ahem. Sorry. Anyway, I gotta jet. There's a LOTR movie downstairs and boy howdy, I am so there! Over and out,

Sierra


End file.
